L’Ucraina lotta per mantenere la città orientale di Pokrovsk, dicono gli analisti militari

Paywall but:

Ukrainian forces are struggling to fend off intensifying Russian advances around the eastern city of Pokrovsk, the military and open-source analysts said on Wednesday.

Moscow’s troops have in recent weeks closed in on the key logistics hub after more than a year of grinding advances, which Kyiv says have come at a staggering human cost to Russia.

In a statement, Ukraine’s 7th Corps said Russian forces had deployed some 11,000 troops in an attempt to encircle the greater Pokrovsk area.

Enemy groups that had already infiltrated the city were attempting to push further north and northwest, it said.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said around 200 Russian troops were in various parts of the city, whose capture he said would be critical for Moscow to demonstrate it has the upper hand on the battlefield.

Capturing Pokrovsk, as well as Kostiantynivka to its northeast, would give Moscow a platform to drive towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk.

Also on Wednesday, Ukrainian open-source group DeepState said Russia has been able to break a military logistics route to the neighbouring city of Myrnohrad through infantry ambushes and drone attacks.

Russia have been right outside of Pokrovsk for a year now. So that city falling isn’t exactly surprising. I just hope Ukraine manage to withdraw without losing too many soldiers this time.

But it worries me a lot that it seems like western leaders are content with the current status on the battlefield since Russia have until now had fairly slow progress.

But looking from the outside it seems to going gradually worse and worse for Ukraine. Casualties might be almost 1:1 (with more deaths for Russians and more wounded for Ukraine) and Russias manpower advantage seems to just grow. So even when on defense Ukraine seems to be completely unable to build up and Russias offensive never culminates.

I really wish we would hear more from European leaders, other than them being annoyed that Putin isn’t willing to end the war.

I saw a video of an analyst saying that the massive use of drones by the Russian military has forced Ukraine to concentrate its forces in a few defensive positions, allowing Russia to advance further without causing significant Ukrainian casualties. He stated that, at this point, Ukraine’s problem isn’t a lack of personnel, but rather where to deploy those soldiers without them being hit by drones.